Khalid Rahman's Love begins with an almost poetic exposition of violence. An argument breaks out between a husband and wife; they seethe at each other, they break things around them, they slap and pull at each other. There is no sound but we can imagine it. All through, the camera treats the sequence as a form of duelling dance. To the point when you wonder if the director is going to end up romanticising domestic violence.
But then, the husband accidentally kills the wife in the melee. That's the stark beginning, and you wonder if this is going to be a Drishyam-like 'what to do with the dead body' kind of mystery. But it isn't.
Shine Tom Chacko plays Anoop and Rajisha Vijayan plays Deepthi. The apartment they share, where almost the entire film except the last scene has been shot, is covered with "happy couple" photos. It is typical of marriages of our time, where the display of love is more important than the experience of it. And so, it is only fitting that when Anoop pushes Deepthi, she cracks her head against the large photo frame, shattering the glass and with it, the illusion of happiness that the two smiling faces project.
The film takes on the tone of an absurd drama, with Anoop's friends trooping in one after the other, unaware of the crime that he has committed. Gokulan plays the ranting, self-involved friend who likes to justify anything and everything; Sudhi Koppa plays the leery, somewhat cowardly friend who brings over a woman (Veena Nandakumar) with whom he's having a fling.
The tension builds as Anoop is unable to get rid of them or the body. The characters are caught in a mess of their own making, each stewing in conflicts that they only make worse with every passing moment, drinking liberally out of a bottle of alcohol. You get the sense that they're trapped there and cannot leave even if they want to. The screenplay involves a lot of pacing around and dramatic monologues from the three men, who feel guilty about their actions but are very far from thinking seriously about reform. There are subtle clues, too, that make sense towards the end.
Watch: Trailer of Love
You start feeling claustrophobic as Anoop moves from one room to another, one box to another. All the while, Deepthi's dead eyes stare out at the nothingness in front of her. For a film with so few characters and such intensity, the cast has to be entirely convincing, and the actors of Love do a good job in keeping us invested.
At some point, gathering the information the characters give us, we begin to form another narrative, one that isn't quite what we're watching. It's a plot twist that's been done before, but I wish the film had dealt with it better. While Anoop is just a plain old jerk till that point, the twist suggests something else that needed a more sensitive treatment rather than the wish fulfilment sort of ending that we get. It's clever but not clever enough.
That said, Love is an interesting watch for those who like black comedies and mind games. It needed more heart, though, for it to look beyond its artifices.
The film was released on Netflix on February 19.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.